Camellia impressinervis

[hanninkj]

This camellia has large leaves and realy yellow flowers. I have waited at least 8 years before I had the first flowers.
I keep the plant in winter at 5 degrees Celsius.

Ton

[ronm]

A real beauty. Did you grow this from seed?

[ronm]

And what is its origin please?

[hanninkj]

No, I bought these kind of species in Japan. Most of them were grafted because cutting of a lot of Camellia species is not possible.

This species lives in China.

Here is an article about Camellia species, in the future I translate it in English: http://hanninkton.nl/Camellia_species.html

Ton

[ronm]

Thank you so much Ton. When we lived in China, Camellias where everywhere but I never had the time to really get into them. This is a real cracker though. Will certainly follow up your lead.

[Peppa]

That is very pretty, Ton!

Do you happen to know if there are any yellow Camellia species that are hardy in Zone 8?

[hanninkj]

@Peppa, it must be possible because in winter it is rather cold at the places were these Camellia's live. A friend has been there and he needed a warm coat when they visited the place in Vietnam.
The well known Camellia nursery in the USA has some species.
http://www.camforest.com/

Ton

[Lesley Cox]

This one is hardy in Zone 8 (here in NZ) but I don't know its name. The colour is a soft lemon yellow and is very lovely.

[hanninkj]

This is very interseting. Please can you make a picture of a flower and a leaf. The leaf looks like nitidissima or impressinervis but the form of the flower is too open.

Ton

[Lesley Cox]

I've tried but maybe not much use to you. The enlargement is very poor quality.

The original picture was taken in 2000 on a regular camera, pre-digital, and scanned about 5 years later. It was taken in a garden in Tauranga (east coast North Island) and I was able to get a few seeds. These germinated but I lost the seedlings when they became too dry. They weren't frosted here though. We get to about -3 to -6C. I went back to the same place about 3 years ago but the people had moved house and no-one knew anything about it. Nor were they willing to let me have either seeds or cutting material.

[Peppa]

Thanks for the info, Ton! I was going to order C. nitidissima var nitidissima from Nuccio's Nursery last year but I was concerned about its hardiness here... I bought several other nice camellias like 'Black Magic,' 'Grape Soda,' 'Lipstick,' 'Grand Marshal Variegated,' 'Tama Peacock', and a few others, though. It was very hard for me to narrow down the list of what I wanted. Now I wish I had gone ahead and ordered a C. nitidissima var nitidissima and some Higo Camellias...

Lesley, this is a very beautiful flower, too! It is too bad that the original tree is now unavailable... I wonder if this is one of the Japanese yellow hybrids that are being bred to increase their cold hardiness...

[Lesley Cox]

I have no idea Peppa. It had the "species" look about it, but that's probably not relevant. It was, I think, quite an old plant with the trunk at ground level about 15cms in diameter, and all the inner trunk and branches very lichened and gnarled-looking.

[hanninkj]

Thank you for the information. It is a pity that such a beatiful Camellia is gone!
It looks more a crossing yellow x japonica.
Crossing japonica x yellow give more the leaves as japonica is my experience.

Ton